Page 2 of The Layover
The first time we met Marcus …
I can think of a dozen empty pleasantries that would work here. The way he and Kay looked at each other lit up the room, you could tell they were meant to be, we all knew we’d be celebrating their marriage soon enough …
The first time we met Marcus, I think bitterly,we hoped that’d be the last time we ever saw that pretentious, preening arsehole.
And then I think:There’s got to be a way to stop this wedding.
Chapter Three
Francesca
It’s entirely possible that I’ve lost the plot a little bit, and I’m all too aware of that, but the truth is – I’ve never felt so alive!
I can see why they do it – all the heroines in romance movies. I can see why they throw caution to the wind and put it all on the line, do something so wildly out of character just for thechanceto make it work with the one they’re meant to be with. I’m practically fizzing with excitement; this is my very own main-character moment.
Hopefully, I think, the first of many.
I can’t let myself consider what will happen if none of this works out. I’d surely just retreat into the shadows, humiliated, but … Well, I’m not going to be the side-character in someone else’s story any longer.
This ismystory; this ismygreat romance.
My stomach flips just thinking about Marcus. His smile, his hugs, his sharp wit and no-nonsense attitude. His lovely, amazing laugh. Every timeI’vemade him laugh like that, and it’s the best sound in the world, all rich and deep and infectiously charming.
The stomach-flip turns into a full-on series of Olympic-level somersaults when I think back to that night. That kiss. It’s been eighteen months, but I can still remember the warmth ofhis palm on my cheek and the taste of his tongue like it was yesterday.
It was the kind of kiss that people write songs about; the stuff of poetry, the epic scene in a fairy tale. After months of flirting and dancing around each other in the office, it was just the two of us, alone outside a party, in the drizzle and beneath the lamplight, my body tucked into his as I stood on tiptoes and he bent to reach me, held me close, the hand he anchored in the small of my back that made me shiver …
We kissed forages.
We fell into bed together after the party ended, cuddled close and whispering until sleep pulled us under.
But then he met Kayleigh, and we let what we had together get away from us. Ships passing in the night, a chance of something truly wonderful lost forever. Dissolved into a close friendship – but the possibility of something more glimmering in those smiles he gives me, in those long hugs and all the text messages we exchange every day …
It’s still there. That feeling. That tension. Thatspark. I know it.
And Marcus knows it, too.
I have to speak to him.
I have to tell him how I feel.
I have to stop this wedding.
Time Until ‘I Do’
19 ½ hours
Chapter Four
Gemma
An announcement chimes through the airport Tannoy – ‘…flight to Barcelona is now boarding…’ – and there’s a flurry of movement inside the gate: people gathering bags, getting to their feet, patting pockets to check their phones and passports are secure.
I should be one of them. I should be elbowing my way to the front of that queue, actually, because I’m on my way to my best friend’s wedding, and what’s more important or exciting than that?
Instead, I’m stood frozen, phone clutched tight to my face, my boss’s words ringing in my ear. ‘I’m sorry, it’s a bit noisy in here. Do you mind saying that again?’
So she does. And somehow, it isn’t magically different to what she said before. I’m not hallucinating after all. This isreal.
